The nearest I got to Syria was in 1998, a car trip from Beirut almost to the Beckaar Valley in Eastern Lebanon near the border with Syria, haven of Hezbollah and a target for random aerial attacks by the Israeli air force. We wanted to see the ancient ruins, the remains of temples dating back 3 thousand years or more.We had a vaguely defined plan to continue across the border to Damascus, where I had a friend, Ibrahim Abdelnour, one of my correspondents who helped to compile the Dictionary of Epidemiology, an authority on the epidemiology of malaria. Everything seemed aligned in our favour as we left Beirut on a heavily overcast morning but halfway to the Beckaar Valley the clouds blew away, leaving all on the ground in sparkling sunshine, perfect targets for the Israeli air force. We had a phone call from our minders in Beirut: Do not proceed; turn back. Two years later I met my Syrian friend at the IEA Congress in Los Angeles, but it wasn't the same as a meeting in Damascus would have been. He was an urbane scholar who loved his ancient city and had been eagerly looking forward to showing it to me. I've flown over Damascus a few times, en route to or from Kuwait. From the air it looks a fascinating city. I wish I'd been able to stroll its twisting lanes, browse its souk, see its mosques, meet more of its scholars than that witty old man, Ibrahim Abdelnour and one of his bright young proteges.
After almost 5 years of vicious warfare among a confusing array of adversaries, Syria has disintegrated. Late in 2015 this once cohesive nation, a regional power that the IDF took very seriously, is in an advanced stage of dissolution. More than 11 million Syrians are homeless refugees. Until very recently they were prosperous, well educated, secure in homes where the same families had lived for generations. That drowned toddler whose body at the edge of the sea on a Turkish beach appeared in newspaper photos all over the world, was from such a family. The fanatics of the Islamic State have moved in, taken over large swaths of the country, diligently obliterating ancient artifacts to conform with the perverse brand of Islam propagated by their mentors in Saudi Arabia.
Germany, to its credit, has welcomed the mass of refugees who have escaped, has promised homes for 800,000. Typically, Harper's government has been evasive, misleading and inconsistent. If they have their druthers, they'll adopt the same policy as the xenophobic Canadian government of the 1930s, for whom "None is too many" was the watchword. I think Germany is getting an excellent bargain by opening its doors and its homes to 800,000 or more Syrian refugees. Would that Canada was led by a similar wise and farsighted statesman! Instead we have a rigid, narrow-minded rightwing Islamophobe ideologue who lacks vision and imagination, can't visualize how immensely such an influx of well educated, highly motivated young people would benefit Canada. Either the NDP, or even the Liberal Party if it could be trusted to honour its promises, would be a paradigm shift and a vast improvement over this visionless conservative government.
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